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DR Congo – Key Events in December

DR Congo – Key Events in December Nov 28th: Government spokesman Lambert Mende accuses M23 rebels occupying Goma of plundering the city, seizing mineral stocks and taking their loot over the border to Rwanda. Mende also said there had been an attempt to plunder the vault of the central bank in Goma. Dozens of trucks used in the construction and upkeep of roads and the refrigeration system of a hospital morgue is dismantled and taken. 30th: Regional defence chiefs from the 11‐member bloc, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) , convene in Goma to monitor progress of M23 promised withdrawal. Five people accused of armed robbery in the Goma suburb of Munigi are burned alive by angry residents, the eve of the rebel pullback from the city, police say. Dec 1st: Singing songs and waving guns, M23 fighters crammed on to a convoy of looted trucks leave Goma, taking heavy weaponry and ammunition seized when FARDC fled in disarray. Gunmen attack the giant Mugunga camp, 10km west of Goma and home to up to 35,000 displaced people. 2nd: Rwanda says Hutu extremist FDLR rebels based in DR Congo – Rwandans who fled their home country following the 1994 genocide there – have clashed on the border with Rwandan troops, but are pushed back. The UN‐backed Radio Okapi – a key source of independent news, broadcasting in French and four local languages – is jammed, officials said, after it aired an interview with M23 political leader Jean‐Marie Runiga . 3rd: A panel of UN experts say Rwanda and Uganda helped the rebels in the offensive, with Kampala providing logistical support. Rwanda and Uganda deny the allegations. Dozens of government army trucks crammed with heavily armed soldiers enter Goma, while government officials also begin to arrive back to reassert their authority after 12 days of rebel rule. 5th: Runiga says his guerrillas are “ready” for talks, Aid agencies struggle to cope with the region's newly displaced, with some 285,000 people having fled their homes since the uprising began in April. Goma's airport reopens. 6th: Talks begin in Kampala between delegations representing each of the parties to the conflict, as well as a representative from each of the 11 member countries of the ICGLR. 86 Mayi‐Mayi militiamen surrender to FARDC in Sud‐Kivu in order to fight the M23 rebels. After skirmishes between FARDC and Cobra Matata rebel group in Ituri province, rebels loot the commercial centre of the city of Boga. Insecurity is rampant in Fizi territory, Sud‐Kivu Province, especially in the mining locality of Misisi. Unidentified armed men visit people in their houses and extort their goods. 7th: Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders and officials hold a summit in the Tanzanian city Dar es Salaam ( p 19513 ). 10th: Uganda reopens the key rebel‐controlled border crossing of Bunagana which it closed in November following a complaint from DR Congolese officials that rebels were using it to levy taxes on vehicles and goods crossing the frontier. 11th: Twenty Rwandans are among a group of 38 suspected M23 members due to go on trial in Kinshasa, a military intelligence official says. Government spokesman Lambert Mende says FARDC arrested about 10 Rwandan soldiers before they captured Goma on November 20th. A group of armed fighters invades and briefly occupies Ingbokolo location, at about 280km north of Bunia: four people killed, shops looted and hundreds of residents fleeing for security into Uganda and South Sudan . 12th: Most of the 1,170 inmates who broke out of a Goma prison in November are still at large. The authorities appeal for calm after posses lynch at least six suspected escapees. DRC Foreign Minister Raymond Tshibanda at the talks in Kampala accuses M23 rebels of committing “heinous” crimes, including murder, rape, torture and looting. He says the rebels are still being led by individuals indicted and wanted by the ICC for human rights violations, pointing particularly to Gen. Bosco Ntaganda and Col. Sultan Makenga . FARDC soldiers regain control of several towns of the mining sector of Pangoy and Elota, 120km from Mambasa, south of Bunia (Eastern Province). These places were occupied by militia of the rebel leader Paul Sadala , alias Morgan. 14th: President Joseph Kabila vows that defence will be a top priority for his government in his annual address to the nation. “Defence, nothing but defence, with a dissuasive, apolitical and professional army”. Kabila also accuses Rwanda and calls for a change in the mandate of UN peacekeepers, saying their performance in the crisis has been “mixed”. 18th: Mende accuses the rebels of not fully withdrawing the 20km they had agreed to. 19th: M23 political chief Jean‐Marie Runiga demands Kinshasa sign a formal ceasefire, accusing officials of dragging out peace talks to bolster the army's position. Paul Rusesabagina , who became famous for sheltering and saving several hundreds of victims of persecution during the Rwandan civil war, says he will launch a campaign to “liberate and democratize” Rwanda. 20th: MONUSCO and FARDC launch an operation called “Comfort” in the Haut and Bas Uele, in Province Orientale (eastern DRCongo) aimed at tracking down the Ugandan rebel movement of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) active in the province and protecting the population. 24th: Gen. Bikueto Tuyenabo of FARDC is shot dead in the Kitambo municipality in Kinshasa. Gen. Bikueto was the commander of the Kotakoli training centre in the province of Equateur. 27th: M23 rebels open fire on two UN helicopters on a routine flight north of Goma. UN authorities say it is the second time in a month that M23 members have targeted its helicopters, commonly used for medical evacuations. M23 spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Vianney Kazarama denies the claims. 31st: Rwanda, due to begin its two‐year tenure as a non‐permanent member of the UN Security Council says finding a lasting solution to the crisis in Eastern DR Congo will be its top priority while on the council. (New Vision & Daily Monitor, Kampala; R. Okapi; © AFP; PANA; IRIN) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series Wiley

DR Congo – Key Events in December

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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2013
ISSN
0001-9844
eISSN
1467-825X
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-825X.2013.04859.x
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Abstract

Nov 28th: Government spokesman Lambert Mende accuses M23 rebels occupying Goma of plundering the city, seizing mineral stocks and taking their loot over the border to Rwanda. Mende also said there had been an attempt to plunder the vault of the central bank in Goma. Dozens of trucks used in the construction and upkeep of roads and the refrigeration system of a hospital morgue is dismantled and taken. 30th: Regional defence chiefs from the 11‐member bloc, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) , convene in Goma to monitor progress of M23 promised withdrawal. Five people accused of armed robbery in the Goma suburb of Munigi are burned alive by angry residents, the eve of the rebel pullback from the city, police say. Dec 1st: Singing songs and waving guns, M23 fighters crammed on to a convoy of looted trucks leave Goma, taking heavy weaponry and ammunition seized when FARDC fled in disarray. Gunmen attack the giant Mugunga camp, 10km west of Goma and home to up to 35,000 displaced people. 2nd: Rwanda says Hutu extremist FDLR rebels based in DR Congo – Rwandans who fled their home country following the 1994 genocide there – have clashed on the border with Rwandan troops, but are pushed back. The UN‐backed Radio Okapi – a key source of independent news, broadcasting in French and four local languages – is jammed, officials said, after it aired an interview with M23 political leader Jean‐Marie Runiga . 3rd: A panel of UN experts say Rwanda and Uganda helped the rebels in the offensive, with Kampala providing logistical support. Rwanda and Uganda deny the allegations. Dozens of government army trucks crammed with heavily armed soldiers enter Goma, while government officials also begin to arrive back to reassert their authority after 12 days of rebel rule. 5th: Runiga says his guerrillas are “ready” for talks, Aid agencies struggle to cope with the region's newly displaced, with some 285,000 people having fled their homes since the uprising began in April. Goma's airport reopens. 6th: Talks begin in Kampala between delegations representing each of the parties to the conflict, as well as a representative from each of the 11 member countries of the ICGLR. 86 Mayi‐Mayi militiamen surrender to FARDC in Sud‐Kivu in order to fight the M23 rebels. After skirmishes between FARDC and Cobra Matata rebel group in Ituri province, rebels loot the commercial centre of the city of Boga. Insecurity is rampant in Fizi territory, Sud‐Kivu Province, especially in the mining locality of Misisi. Unidentified armed men visit people in their houses and extort their goods. 7th: Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders and officials hold a summit in the Tanzanian city Dar es Salaam ( p 19513 ). 10th: Uganda reopens the key rebel‐controlled border crossing of Bunagana which it closed in November following a complaint from DR Congolese officials that rebels were using it to levy taxes on vehicles and goods crossing the frontier. 11th: Twenty Rwandans are among a group of 38 suspected M23 members due to go on trial in Kinshasa, a military intelligence official says. Government spokesman Lambert Mende says FARDC arrested about 10 Rwandan soldiers before they captured Goma on November 20th. A group of armed fighters invades and briefly occupies Ingbokolo location, at about 280km north of Bunia: four people killed, shops looted and hundreds of residents fleeing for security into Uganda and South Sudan . 12th: Most of the 1,170 inmates who broke out of a Goma prison in November are still at large. The authorities appeal for calm after posses lynch at least six suspected escapees. DRC Foreign Minister Raymond Tshibanda at the talks in Kampala accuses M23 rebels of committing “heinous” crimes, including murder, rape, torture and looting. He says the rebels are still being led by individuals indicted and wanted by the ICC for human rights violations, pointing particularly to Gen. Bosco Ntaganda and Col. Sultan Makenga . FARDC soldiers regain control of several towns of the mining sector of Pangoy and Elota, 120km from Mambasa, south of Bunia (Eastern Province). These places were occupied by militia of the rebel leader Paul Sadala , alias Morgan. 14th: President Joseph Kabila vows that defence will be a top priority for his government in his annual address to the nation. “Defence, nothing but defence, with a dissuasive, apolitical and professional army”. Kabila also accuses Rwanda and calls for a change in the mandate of UN peacekeepers, saying their performance in the crisis has been “mixed”. 18th: Mende accuses the rebels of not fully withdrawing the 20km they had agreed to. 19th: M23 political chief Jean‐Marie Runiga demands Kinshasa sign a formal ceasefire, accusing officials of dragging out peace talks to bolster the army's position. Paul Rusesabagina , who became famous for sheltering and saving several hundreds of victims of persecution during the Rwandan civil war, says he will launch a campaign to “liberate and democratize” Rwanda. 20th: MONUSCO and FARDC launch an operation called “Comfort” in the Haut and Bas Uele, in Province Orientale (eastern DRCongo) aimed at tracking down the Ugandan rebel movement of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) active in the province and protecting the population. 24th: Gen. Bikueto Tuyenabo of FARDC is shot dead in the Kitambo municipality in Kinshasa. Gen. Bikueto was the commander of the Kotakoli training centre in the province of Equateur. 27th: M23 rebels open fire on two UN helicopters on a routine flight north of Goma. UN authorities say it is the second time in a month that M23 members have targeted its helicopters, commonly used for medical evacuations. M23 spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Vianney Kazarama denies the claims. 31st: Rwanda, due to begin its two‐year tenure as a non‐permanent member of the UN Security Council says finding a lasting solution to the crisis in Eastern DR Congo will be its top priority while on the council. (New Vision & Daily Monitor, Kampala; R. Okapi; © AFP; PANA; IRIN)

Journal

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series – Wiley

Published: Jan 1, 2013

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